Coal Ash Testimony

Coal Ash Spill near Kingston, Tennessee December 2008
By the way, that flood of sludge is toxic too!!

October 11, 2010

Coal Ash Testimony

Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640

Dear Administrator Jackson,

I want to graciously thank the Environmental Protection Agency for moving to create safeguards in toxic coal ash disposal.

I ask you to support “Subtitle C.” This is the only option that will better protect people, planet, and the livelihood of all created things.

I am a seminarian preparing to be a Catholic priest and a supporter of Restoring Eden. I feel it is my duty as a citizen and faithful person to both care for my home on the Earth and for my sisters and brothers who call our Earth home.

In light of this I wish to speak up for the people who are suffering, the land that mourns, and the integrity of life that is violated by toxic coal ash waste.

The people of Town of the Pines, Indiana know the cost of toxic coal ash. Their community is now a superfund site because dangerous chemicals like arsenic, lead, selenium, and mercury have contaminated their well water. Cancer, birth defects, and learning disabilities are just a few of the illnesses that the children of Town of the Pines are suffering. The well water was even known to be contaminated long before public officials warned the people of the serious dangers of their tap water! How can we let this continue while the people are paying with their health and lives? Support coal ash regulations. Support “Subtitle C!”

Our land, the land we live upon and love is being destroyed by toxic waste. Coal ash waste is poisoning air and water in over 130 places in 34 states.ⁱ These toxic sites contain, “aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, beryllium, boron, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, strontium, thallium, vanadium, and zinc.”ⁱⁱ Many of these chemicals are released into aquifers and atmosphere. The dangerous chemicals that enter streams leave fish highly vulnerable. Fish exposed to selenium have been deformed sometimes suffering “S”-shaped spines or maneuvering with mutated organs. Not only do fish and other animals that survive carry the chemicals in their bodies, but the chemicals are passed on when eaten by predators. In this way the toxic waste moves through the food chain damaging animals and plants all along the way. Truly our land, plants, and animals mourn because of our toxic coal waste. Support “Subtitle C!”

Call it Karma, call it the Golden Rule, but whatever we do to the weakest parts of our creation we can expect to happen to us in return! What happens to the land, creatures, and all people when the massive dam of toxic coal ash waste breaks loose in Kingston, Tennessee, affects me in Chicago, Illinois. What happens when working people suffer from coal ash poisons leeching into watersheds in Town of the Pines, Indiana, affects us in Chicago, Illinois. What happens when coal companies blow up mountain tops in West Virginia destroying forests, driving out animals, dumping toxic wastes, and bullying people whose very homes have been the mountains for generations, affects all of us from New York to Los Angeles from Fargo to New Orleans. Whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, we have life because of the intricate network of life that flows through all beings. From water systems to climate systems, from photosynthesis to respiration, from unicellular organisms to complex animals, we are part of our environment and our environment is part of us. Unless we begin to see that we are all connected in the unity of life on Earth, we are doomed to the destruction we enact on all things!

Coal ash is toxic waste and it is killing us, killing our land, and killing all creatures. We can choose regulations for the safety of life. At this time and in this moment choose “Subtitle C” for the life of all!

With All Sincerity,

Joseph J. Grilliot, CPPS

i- http://unearthed.earthjustice.org/blog/2010-september/new-report-coal-ash-linked-cancer-and-other-maladies

ii- http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/view/23

More info on Town of Pines waste problems here:

http://www.pineswater.org/index.htm

Restoring Eden's Website, See "What's in Your Electricity? Hazardous Coal Ash"

http://restoringeden.org/resources/fact-sheets

The EPA Website with more info. on Coal Ash Regulations:

http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/ccrfaq.htm

The EPA is accepting testimony on Coal Ash Regulation until November 19th.

You can email them to support real regulations with "Subtitle C" at rcra-docket@epa.gov and note Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-RCRA-2009-0640!!